TIMELINE: Vladimir Putin's 8 years as Russian president
(Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin's favored successor, Dmitry Medvedev, has the support of more than 70 percent of voters and is almost certain to win Sunday's presidential election.
Following is a timeline of highlights of the Putin presidency:
Aug 9, 1999 - Boris Yeltsin names little-known security chief Vladimir Putin as prime minister, says he wants Putin to succeed him as president.
Dec 31 - Yeltsin resigns, names Putin acting president.
August 12 - The Kursk nuclear-powered submarine sinks to the bottom of the Barents Sea killing all 118 crew. Putin's image suffers a jolt after he keeps a low profile and comments on the crisis for the first time only four days later.
June 2001 - Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush meet for their first summit in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana.
November - At his Texas ranch, Bush differs with Putin over U.S. missile defense ambitions and cuts in nuclear warheads.
May 2002 - Putin and Bush publicly differ in Moscow. Putin denies Russia could be helping Iran develop nuclear weapons.
June 2003 - Russia closes the TVS television channel, the sole countrywide station not owned by the state or a state-controlled company. The closure leads to a debate on press freedom.
December - Putin gains total control of the lower house of parliament, the Duma, after elections in which the Kremlin-backed United Russia party wins a landslide.
March 2004 - Putin wins second term as president with more than 70 percent of the vote.
September - Islamist fighters seize more than 1,000 people in a school in Beslan, triggering a three-day siege that ends in gunfire. A total of 333 hostages are killed. Half of them are children.
- Putin scraps direct election for regional governors and makes them, in effect, Kremlin appointees.
November - Putin approves Russia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
April 2005 - Putin becomes the first Russian or Soviet leader to visit Israel as part of a Middle East tour.
July 2006 - Russian lawmakers unanimously endorse a Kremlin request that Putin be allowed to send special forces to hunt down terrorists anywhere in the world.
April 2007 - Putin attacks U.S. foreign policy and urges a revival of traditional values in his last annual address to lawmakers that lays out a route for Russia to follow after he steps down.
June - Putin says Russia will go back to its Cold War stance of aiming its missiles at Europe if Washington went ahead with a plan to build a missile defense shield near Russia's borders.
December - Putin names First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as his favored candidate to succeed him.
-- Putin is named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2007 for bringing stability and renewed status to his country.
March 2 - Russian presidential election.
May. 2008 - Putin's presidential term ends.
(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
